Hong Kong must ensure press can access business data

New York, January 11, 2013--Hong Kong's government should
withdraw a proposed regulation that would limit journalists' access to
information about business leaders, the Committee to Protect Journalists said
today.

Hong Kong's Financial Services and Treasury Bureau and the
Companies Registry submitted a briefing paper to the legislature's financial
affairs panel this week outlining the plan to remove identifying details about
company directors from financial documents starting in 2014, according to The
Associated Press. Under the proposal, directors could also redact personal
information from past filings, AP reported.

The regulation would obstruct investigative reporting.
Journalists routinely use the personal information, which includes home
addresses and identification numbers, to report on corruption and wrongdoing, according
to the Hong
Kong Journalists Association and the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong
Kong, which have each issued statements opposing the move. "We regret that we
were not invited to provide feedback on this change during a public
consultation at the end of last year," the correspondents' club wrote in a
letter published on its website.

The government must table the regulation for discussion, the
journalists association reported. The timetable for its possible adoption is
not clear.

"This regulation would be a dramatic blow to accountability
and transparency, which would greatly harm Hong Kong's standing as an
international financial center," said Bob Dietz, CPJ Asia program coordinator.
"Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying should not allow its adoption."

Financial reporting has come under increased scrutiny in
Hong Kong and mainland China in the past year. Chinese authorities censored Bloomberg
news agency and The
New York Times for exposing wealth accumulated by the families of top
leaders in 2012. Those reports relied on data the regulation is seeking to
restrict, according to AP. Hong Kong Journalists Association cited an additional
six local investigative reports that would not have been possible without the
data.

Hong Kong became a special administrative region of China in
1997 when it reverted from British to Chinese rule. Since then, the environment
for the media has deteriorated as Beijing's influence has grown, according to CPJ
research.